David:
It is almost impossible to explain Thesis week to most normal folk. it is not to bad when there is only one thesis student, two makes it interesting, three difficult and four means you are putting 1% of the graduating research students at the University through one office. I know the Thesis Office Director at TAMU by first name. She and her staff are excellent, but follow the rules completely. She makes grown men weep.
The problem is that the students are stressed and the committee's have perverse personalities, which is putting it politely. So it is not a good mix.
This semester has been somewhat kind, only two, one thesis and one professional paper. The professional paper was finished last week and the thesis - today.
One of my students was asked by his committee, why did he put the linear regression equation and the R(squared) on the graph. He tried to explain, made a HASH of it and received some negative comments. Later he asked me why, considering he had taken and passed Advanced Statistics at a top school, I was only moderately surprised. The real answer is because it is easy and anyone who understands stat will understand the R(squared) number and assign it a weight, instead he put in the full linear regression equation, normal probability plots. descriptive statistics and residuals plot, took about 2 pages in the document, then he asked again, so what does this is mean. I replied has an R(squared) of 0.95 so it is ok.
I have gone back to the shop to move the order forward. Toronto will be easier.
JMN
